Wilson merged professional performers with amateurs and inside jokes in his spectacles

Evidence

Although most everyone was a nonactor, the cast included several professionals: the playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie (with whom Wilson had worked), the dancer Kenneth King, and Ronnie Gilbert (one of the original members of the Weavers). Somewhat mischievously, Wilson put Bob Dylan’s name in the program. Even more roguishly, the act ends with a set of four twenty-foot-tall hairy legs lumbering across the stage, after which the King places a Chinese figurine on the waiting table. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1514

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the chapter’s argument about how an avant-garde scene recruits its non-professional audience into casting; also echoes the reader’s interest in what material conditions allow non-pros to participate.